Citation

Panchal S, Khan MM, Sharma A, Bharti AA, Singh B. Int. J. Theor. Appl. Mechan. (Delhi) 2017; 12(1): 167-190.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2017, Research India Publications)

DOI

unavailable

PMID

unavailable

Abstract

Safety is an important criterion in today's world while designing a road. Most of the roads having safe application of geometric design in terms of super elevation, appropriate curve radius, and curbs, medians, appropriate site distances, service lane etc as per the design standard code but still the injuries control is not possible by involving only these criteria of design for the roads it requires the technique which gives appropriate and actually safe design like traffic calming measures which control speed of vehicles hence less energy transfer between the human body and the environment so cause less severity and less injuries. In India, more efforts are required by government agencies, contractors and utility companies to improve the safety and mobility for construction zone traffic. Handling traffic in work zones is challenging because the work activity presents an abnormal and often disruptive environment to the motorist. Crash rates on highway work zones are higher than that of other locations in many countries. This study examines Measures of Effectiveness (MOE) of vehicle speeds and its comparison with posted speed limits (40Km/h) in Advance Warning Zone (AWZ), Working Zone (WZ) and Terminal Transition Zone (TTZ) on SH 37 and SH 83 in India.

RESULTS indicate that all the fast moving vehicles exceeded the posted speed limit of 40 km/h in AWZ, WZ and TTZ without active traffic calming devices but with the presence of active traffic calming devices all vehicle speed was within speed limit of WZ. 85th percentile speeds and mean speed of M2W, Car, 2-Axle Trucks and Multi-Axle Trucks, are much higher than speed limit in AWZ WZ at Site-2 and site 4. By ANOVA test it is found that there is no significant difference in the speed of vehicles in AWZ, WZ and TTZ at 95% confidence interval without active traffic calming devices and significant difference was found when active traffic calming devices was installed in WZ. This study strongly recommends the use of active traffic calming measures like Rumble Strips and Speed bump on Highway Work Zones. The results of the study would help transportation planners and engineers to understand the main problems of highway work zone and effectiveness of active traffic calming devices in highway work zone.


Keywords: Traffic calming, MOEs, Advance warning zone, Speed characteristics, Speed bumps

Language: en